Friday, March 06, 2009

For my textual analysis blog I have chosen to write about "The Office" which airs on NBC on Thursday nights. It is one of my favorite shows and I cannot get enough of it! There are so many scenes that I wanted to include but I found one that gives a great example at how this show is filmed. "The Office" is pretty much self explanatory; it's about a group of people that work in an office setting for Dunder Mifflin Paper Company. Being a fan of the show, I had to of course choose a classic moment of Jim messing with Dwight. The filming of this scene shows how any other scene would be filmed on the show. It is a very unique filming sequence, complete with added sit-down "Real World" confessions of the characters to aid in explaining the narrative conflict. Although this scene doesn't have a character's confession, it has everything else that helped make "The Office" a success. I love how the filming includes alot of depth staging; the camera is always moving in and out to show an up close shot as well as a surrounding shot. It's the kind of filming that makes you feel like you are there witnessing the action first hand. The most important part of the filming would have to be the shot scale and camera movement. The camera is always moving up and down, back and forth, side to side; you name it. This also adds to the lifelike experience of the show. Most of the shot scales are between medium short and close-up of the character's face in order to see their emotion. When in conversation, the camera does alot of panning and tilting around the characters to allow the viewer to have a convincing analysis of what is being presented. Watch this scene to understand what I mean; have a chuckle or two!

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